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Why would I need the BKON Configuration app?

Most of our users have absolutely no need to use the BKON Configuration app because out BKON brand beacons come pre-configured for the Physical Web and for use with our BKON Platform out of the box.

All of our BKON brand beacons are set to broadcast Eddystone-URL and are in a non-connectable mode for our user's safety. But just like most other beacon hardware companies, our beacons are capable of broadcasting many different frame types so we wanted to allow users to do whatever they want with their beacons.

That's where the BKON Configuration app comes in. This app, available for iOS or Android, can be used to pair with your BKON brand beacon to change the hardware settings. We don't recommend this for 99% of our users because changing the beacon hardware settings may affect the BKON Platform and has potential to cause problems. However, if you do choose to download and pair with your BKON beacon, there is some additional functionality that may be useful for developers and those looking to develop apps or turn up their beacons to broadcast further.

By using the BKON Configuration app, you have the potential to change many of the settings for your beacon including:

Beacon Mode: This is the frame type which your beacon is broadcasting. It may be set as either iBeacon (connectable/non-connectable), Eddystone (connectable/non-connectable), or Interleave (connectable/non-connectable). Interleave broadcasts both iBeacon and Eddystone frame types together and is available in our beacons running firmware version 4.0 and above.

*default is Eddystone (non-connectable)

Changing the major/minor/UUID for an iBeacon frame type.

Eddystone Type: If you'd like to explore Eddystone-UID beacon functionality with services like Google Beacon Registry, then our beacons support that. We choose not to focus on Eddystone-EID because we already have a rotating, synced key on our Eddystone-URL frame type which uniquely gives us anti-spoofing capabilities.

TX Power: This ranges from -30 dBm to 4 dBM. Our default setting is -12 dBm and our BKON Platform is configured so that users have the ability to change the range of their beacons on the Platform instead of needing to change the tx power... but in case you want to, you can.

Advertising Interval: This is how frequently (or the interval) your beacon flashes it's frame type. Our default advertising interval is 700 ms. It should be noted that our 4.0 firmware beacons offer users to set different intervals for iBeacon and Eddystone frame types independently. This is most useful for users who choose to utilize the Interleave beacon mode.